Accessing default shares

I wont edit my previous post as I can admit when I am wrong.
so I am in front of my pc and yup stupid windows still has admin shares there by default. they truly serve no purpose in a normal machine.

but someone please correct me if I am wrong those were disabled and inaccessible by default years ago. you actually had to go and enable them and I imagine the standard security policy in windows 10 has them disabled since there is no option to enable or disable them openly in windows.

I stand by my previous statement though, those haven't been accessible, by default, for ages that I have ever tried to access and it is truly foolish to leave them enabled, not just a user stand point but an enabled admin share is a hackers wet dream because they have unrestricted access to your C drive. just share the C drive and what not and share it out properly and it will be usable the way it should be.

You can see them on the machine you are sitting at with \\compname\c$ for example.

If you don't take any action to add shares, there is a default share with win 10. It is 'Users'. Surprised me, too.

For anyone else with the same question I had how to use/enable the default shares on a Win10 machine I found what you need to do (other than the obvious things like enabling file & print sharing etc) is to create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value called LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and set it to '1'.

After you did this exit out of the registry and reboot the computer and you should be fine. Just tried it myself and using my MS account on both machines I didn't even have to enter my credentials...very convenient!

WebMaximus said:

For anyone else with the same question I had how to use/enable the default shares on a Win10 machine I found what you need to do (other than the obvious things like enabling file & print sharing etc) is to create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value called LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and set it to '1'.

After you did this exit out of the registry and reboot the computer and you should be fine. Just tried it myself and using my MS account on both machines I didn't even have to enter my credentials...very convenient!

Creating the DWORD LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy was the method to enable hidden/default and administrative shares since Windows 7. However, in Windows 10, at least on my three computers, it doesn't work anymore. I create this DWORD by default on any new Windows installation, but in Windows 10, doesn't seem to be enough. The computers are visible on the network, but the hidden shares are not accessible. I'm very surprised it's working for you.

simple0 said:

Creating the DWORD LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy was the method to enable hidden/default and administrative shares since Windows 7. However, in Windows 10, at least on my three computers, it doesn't work anymore. I create this DWORD by default on any new Windows installation, but in Windows 10, doesn't seem to be enough. The computers are visible on the network, but the hidden shares are not accessible. I'm very surprised it's working for you.

That's strange because here it's working just fine as you can see

guys,
Windows10 uses "SMB over IP" rather than "NBSTAT over IP", SMB is using port 445. But MS also changes the behavior. Not using 445<>445, but 445<>Dynamic Client port.

you must add or alter the firewall rule to accept 445 requests to dynamic ports!

Thanks to Redmond!


Thanks to Microsoft.

kragb55 said:

guys,
Windows10 uses "SMB over IP" rather than "NBSTAT over IP", SMB is using port 445. But MS also changes the behavior. Not using 445<>445, but 445<>Dynamic Client port.

you must add or alter the firewall rule to accept 445 requests to dynamic ports!

Thanks to Redmond!


Thanks to Microsoft.

Hi there

this doesn't always work -- I've had problems even with firewall totally disabled. Sometimes W10 computers can see other computers in the network, sometimes they can't --seems to be unpredictable and even when you have 2 seemingly identical machines one works fine and one doesn't.

Never had this problem on W7 or XP. Networking though IMO is still a TOTAL HOSEUP on any Windows system. If it works - breathe a sigh of relief --if it doesn't you can try 2,000 zillion different things and it sometimes STILL doesn't work. It's a total crap shoot IMHO.

Cheers
jimbo

I'm having a similar issue as the OP, only I'm trying to connect to the admin shares from win10, to Win7.

When I do this from Win7 to Win7, there are no issues whatsoever, when I do it from Win10, I get Access Denied.

-No computers are using Homegroup.
-both computers have the same user as admin; so, I'm logged in win10 with the same username and password, this user existing in Win7 as an admin
-both computers are in the same workgroup
-**when connecting and get a Access Denies, I try to connect using other credentials and use Win7computername\username and the password (this username and password are the same ones I'm logged in to the Win10 computer)
-I have disabled the Firewall on Win10 to make sure no ports are blocked.

**note that when it's Win7 to Win7, I don't need to specify the username as othercomputername\username, as long as it's the same username and password, connecting to admin shares works immediately.

It's very obvious that MS has screwed things again with no explanation.

Incidentally, if I go to my Win7 computer, and I connect back to the win10 admin shares, it works just fine with the same username/pwd I'm trying above, with or w/o firewall enabled on Win10

This is such a PITA, hopefully someone has some sort of resolution...